Shirayuki
by september ninth
Summary: Kirigakure is cold. Or, the story of the snow that ached for warmth, even if she melted. [OC as Haku's sister]


**shirayuki**

Chapter One

* * *

Shirayuki learns several things during her first few years.

The sky is gray. The snow is gray. The mist is gray.

Kirigakure is cold.

She's one of the lucky ones, though. She has a whole family, unbroken by the wars that seem to rage on forever, and she lives in relative comfort with a roof over her head and food on the table most nights. Her parents love her, and her brother adores her.

So yes, Shirayuki is one of the lucky ones.

Luck, however, tends to be a tricky, unpredictable bitch.

* * *

"Haku," Shirayuki calls to her brother. "Are they gone?"

There is a moment of silence before Haku runs back to their room on light feet. He nods vigorously and, as she rises from the bed, lights up.

"Are you gonna teach me?" he asks eagerly, following her closely like a puppy trailing after its mother. He watches as she reaches to close their bedroom door shut and then pads across the room to draw the curtains over their tiny window. "You promised to show me!"

"I did," Shirayuki says, amused. "But you need to be quiet, Haku."

He nods so vigorously that she fears his neck will snap, his eyes wide and bright with excitement. She looks at her brother and, once again, wonders at what she sees.

They look alike, she and Haku. Dark hair that falls like a sheet of black silk, an elegant, fine-boned face, and pale, unblemished skin that often make them look like ghosts in the moonlight. It's obvious to anyone with eyes that they're related, just as it's obvious that the siblings take after their mother. In fact, it's difficult to spot even the slightest hint of their father in the two children, though Father doesn't seem to mind.

"I am a blessed man," Father likes to say. He would kiss Shirayuki's cheek and ruffle Haku's hair, turning an adoring look upon his wife. "A simple farmer with a beautiful wife and two beautiful children."

Shirayuki likes those moments, when their parents look at each other with absolute love in their eyes and she and Haku are coddled, treasured above all else in the world. The family would gather together, huddling for warmth, and they'd spend hours just talking until one by one they nodded off, and Shirayuki's sleepy thoughts would marvel at how blessed she is to have such a loving, kind family.

She loves them too, so it is for them that she does what Haku so eagerly anticipates each day, when their parents are out in the field.

"Watch," she says, and then her hands are weaving through the air. Haku sits, entranced, as his sister sets a steady rhythm and then, before his wide eyes, a sheet of fine ice slowly materializes between her hands.

Shirayuki enlarges the circle of ice bit by bit before she slashes her arms downward. The ice falls with a dull thud and begins to melt at their feet.

She turns to face her brother.

"Your turn," she says.

* * *

Perhaps it's because she's older, but Shirayuki gains control over her strange and exciting power quicker than her brother does. Haku is frustrated, she can tell, but she is quick to assure him that he's doing incredibly well in furthering his progress. She's not lying, either: if truth be told, there are subtle signs that tell her Haku, though off to a slow start, will soon overtake her in terms of skill.

Haku, however, is still only seven years old.

"You don't have to force yourself," she keeps telling him. "There's no reason to rush."

Haku smiles at her and agrees, but she's not his older sister for nothing; she can see the disappointment and determination in his eyes, and she has stumbled across Haku's secret practices more than once to know that he's pushing himself to improve.

She doesn't see the harm in it, so she allows it to continue.

In hindsight, she should have stopped him.

* * *

Mother's slap takes both siblings off guard.

Haku's hand trembles when he reaches up to touch his cheek, shocked. "I…."

Shirayuki wants to run to him. Wants to envelop him in her arms and magic up some ice to press against his reddening cheek, wants to shout at her mother and demand explanations, wants to do _something_ , but. She is frozen.

Mother's hard look wavers and shatters as she breaks into big gasping sobs and sweeps her son into her arms.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes, over and over again, clutching Haku to her bosom like he'll vanish from her sight. Haku, for his part, remains still and bewildered in the circle of her arms as their mother shakes and shudders with the force of her cries.

Shirayuki finally finds her voice. "Mother?"

Mother lifts her head and stares at her like she's never seen her daughter before. "Shirayuki," she says in a soft voice filled with horror. "Don't tell me that you…?"

In lieu of words, Shirayuki lifts her hand and summons an orb of ice.

Mother's face crumples and she mutely holds out an arm. Shirayuki's steps are slowed by trepidation, but she walks into her mother's embrace nonetheless and finds that, even in such a bewildering situation, her mother's familiar scent and warmth still manage to ease some of her fears.

"My poor children," Mother whispers against their temples. Her arms tighten around them and loosen, pushes them back a step so they can see her face clearly. Mother's eyes are wet with tears but steely and hard. "Promise me never to do that in front of other people," she demands.

Haku, frightened, rapidly nods. Shirayuki, however, hesitates.

Mother shakes her. "Promise me!"

"I promise!" she blurts. She doesn't know what's going on and why her mother is acting this way, but she wants it to stop. She wants her mother to smile at them with her usual fondness and warmth, wants the three of them to laugh and banter as they always do, wants her father to come back so they can huddle together and doze off one by one….

The stiff lines around her mother's mouth slacken with relief. She strokes her children's faces, searches their eyes with her own, and draws them into a much gentler hug.

"This is our secret," she whispers. "Our secret."

Shirayuki nods and presses her face into her mother's chest, and hides from the world.

* * *

That night, Father leads a mob to their house and murders Mother.

Shirayuki's ears ring with his last words as she flees, Haku's hand gripped in hers.

"I'm sorry," Father's voice pleads. "I'm sorry."

 _No_ , she thinks hazily as the world blurs by. _I'm sorry, Father._

Her clothes are stained with his blood.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm alive! I'm back (maybe?) from my long hiatus, hopefully with a much improved writing style. I'm giving another shot at OCs, this time in the Naruto fandom (though I'm only in the first season still). Haku struck me as a really interesting character, and I wanted to see how someone else might react to his circumstances, so... Shirayuki. Boom.

Short chapter, yes, but I felt like this was a good place to stop. Onto other things in the next chapter, then.

Read, review, follow, any of the above will make me a very happy woman.

-Eurwen de Vrill


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